Residents of the biennial Austronesian International Arts Award (南島國際美術獎) are showing freshly completed works inspired by Austronesian cultures or the landscape of Taitung County at the Taitung Art Museum (臺東美術館). In the first tier of this juried government-sponsored contest, artists were chosen for a fully-funded 30-day residency in Taitung County during which they completed a themed work. In the second tier, works were chosen for a NT$300,000 top prize and two awards of NT$100,000 each.
■ Taitung Art Museum, 350 Jhejiang Rd, Taitung County (台東縣台東市浙江路 350 號 ), tel: (08) 933-0252. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 5pm
■ Opening reception tomorrow at 2pm. Until Aug. 31
Photo courtesy of Michael Ku Gallery
A Database of Living Bodies: The Production of Image Variations with Color Ink (活體資料庫：變異形象的墨彩製造) is an inventory of beasts delicately rendered in ink or gouache, a thick paint that builds up easily into layers and lends a sculptural feel. Eight contemporary Taiwanese artists created zoo animals with office-worker hindquarters, baby chicks with tentacles and other oddball assemblies of familiar animal parts.
■ Aki Gallery (也趣藝廊), 141 Minzu W Rd, Taipei City (台北市民族西路141號), tel: (02) 2599-1171. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 6:30pm
■ Until July 27
Photo courtesy of Aki Gallery
The Rural, the Scar, the Southwestern Soul: Works of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (鄉土‧傷痕‧西南魂─四川美院作品展 ) is a group exhibition that surveys Scar Art (傷痕美術), a chapter of Chinese art history dealing with the Cultural Revolution. Beginning at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (四川美院) in the 1970s, painters began to shift from idealistic portrayals of heroes to realist depictions of rural figures, minorities and memories of the Cultural Revolution.
■ National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館), 49 Nanhai Rd, Taipei City (台北市南海路49號), tel: (02) 2361-0270. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. General admission: NT$30
■ Until Aug. 24
Landscape of Man (人的風景) is a two-part exhibition offering a look at modern China through art. One gallery is covered with scripts, clips, posters and sound samples that survey Lou Ye’s (婁燁) oeuvre, which is typical of post-1990s “sixth generation” cinema in treating people of modern urban China. Meanwhile, Chinese contemporary artists Song Kun (宋琨), Wei Jia (韋嘉) and Qi Zing (齊星) show paintings of lovers, friends and single human figures caught in private and unguarded moments.
■ Michael Ku Gallery (谷公館), 4F-2, 21, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段21號4樓之2), tel: (02) 2577-5601. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Aug. 17
There Has Been (此曾在) features two Taiwanese artists who each recreate a long-gone experience on film. Su Hu-hsien (蘇育賢) presents Chair (椅子), a gleeful 20-minute paean to a standard-issue wooden chair that in his childhood doubled as a time machine. Against a pale blue wall, Chu Yin-hua (朱盈樺) coordinates blown-up sepia-toned family photographs to reflect stories between moments and persons within them.
■ Fotoaura Institute of Photography (海馬迴光畫館), 2F, 83 Chenggong Rd, Greater Tainan (台南市成功路83號2樓), tel: (06) 222-3495. Open Wednesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 8pm, closed Mondays and Tuesdays
■ Until July 27
The Portuguese never established a presence on Taiwan, but they must have traded with the indigenous people because later traders reported that the locals referred to parts of deer using Portuguese words. What goods might the Portuguese have offered their indigenous trade partners? Among them must have been slaves, for the Portuguese dealt slaves across Asia. Though we often speak of “Portuguese” ships, imagining them as picturesque vessels manned by pointy-bearded Iberians, in Asia Portuguese shipping between local destinations was crewed by Asian seamen, with a handful of white or Eurasian officers. “Even the great carracks of 1,000-2,000 tons which plied
It’s only half the size of its more famous counterpart in Taipei, but the Botanical Garden of the National Museum of Nature Science (NMNS, 國立自然科學博物館植物園) is surely one of urban Taiwan’s most inviting green spaces. Covering 4.5 hectares immediately northeast of the government-run museum in Taichung’s North District (北區), the garden features more than 700 plant species, many of which are labeled in Chinese but not in English. Since its establishment in 1999, the site’s managers have done their best to replicate a number of native ecosystems, dividing the site into eight areas. The name of the Coral Atoll Zone might
On Monday morning, in quick succession, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) released statements announcing “that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and General Secretary Xi Jinping (習近平) have invited KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) to lead a delegation on a visit to the mainland” as the KMT’s press release worded it. The KMT’s press release added “Chairwoman Cheng expressed her gratitude for the invitation and has gladly accepted it.” Beijing’s official Xinhua news release described Song Tao (宋濤), head of the Taiwan Work Office of the CCP Central Committee, as
Nuclear power is getting a second look in Southeast Asia as countries prepare to meet surging energy demand as they vie for artificial intelligence-focused data centers. Several Southeast Asian nations are reviving mothballed nuclear plans and setting ambitious targets and nearly half of the region could, if they pursue those goals, have nuclear energy in the 2030s. Even countries without current plans have signaled their interest. Southeast Asia has never produced a single watt of nuclear energy, despite long-held atomic ambitions. But that may soon change as pressure mounts to reduce emissions that contribute to climate change, while meeting growing power needs. The
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